


Color of the Soul

by featheredschist



Series: Colors [1]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Angst, Color Blindness, Fluff, M/M, Soul Bond, Soulmates, mentions of child abuse (offscreen), shaken baby syndrome (off screen), soulbond
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-07
Updated: 2014-09-07
Packaged: 2018-02-16 11:02:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2267304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/featheredschist/pseuds/featheredschist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What happens if you can't see in color, unless you find your soul mate?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Color of the Soul

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr prompt, and I'm sorry, I've lost the OP info! Also, part 1 of several. Dunno when I'll get to the others though.
> 
> This runs concurrent with the Avengers movie, especially one particular scene, and pulls dialogue from that scene, tweaks. This is definitely AU.

He had been told from childhood that it was a myth that soul mates existed. Only the hopelessly romantic thought such a thing was possible, or so his father had continually raved about when he was deep in his cups. Scientifically, there was absolutely no basis, that he'd ever discovered, for such a bond between two or more people.

It was rumored, by the charitable, that his parents had been mates, and he vaguely remembered hearing something about his mother's vision having been different before Him. He thought he'd inherited her vision problem, but when old enough to completely understand, knew that while color blindness was largely prevalent in females, the total level of blindness he had wasn't completely genetic. He had always wondered if perhaps his father had contributed to the problem, perhaps via shaken baby syndrome.

Since both of his parents were now dead, he'd never know the truth. And still, the stories persisted, even through college, around people he otherwise respected for being brilliant in the sciences. Including Betty.

 

He'd had the butler, and the occasional trustworthy nanny to help him learn to cope with his color blindness from an early age. They'd managed to hide it from his father, but his mother knew. When it came to wiring electronics, he had to organize his tool boxes to put each coated wire in a different slot so he never confused them. Getting colored contacts with one lens that managed a moderate form of correctedness also helped. One of his MIT projects was to create a single thickness lens that carried a bit of color correction, and he made several pairs for himself. 

When Obadiah took over the bulk of running his family's company, he was able to fade into the background and work more on his ideas for helping others with their color blindness. He managed to keep up with his other demands, especially as the military contracts started to pile up. He'd even had an intern research for any mention of color blindness in any mythology, just on a hunch after listening to some bubbleheaded kid in a coffee shop once, who went on about true love, and soulmates.

 

The gamma incident brought only brief flashes of color, mostly saturating the normal grays with a virulent green. But he only saw those when he gave himself over to the Other Guy. And that he tried to do as little as possible.

Two years prior to his kidnapping, he'd had a blinding flash of color, that had left him with a gigantic migraine that took several day to recover from. He'd ended up treating it with alcohol, since no medicines worked. He didn't remember much of that time. The kidnapping didn't change anything, except to saddle him with a chest mounted power source. His cave-mate told him it was blue, and somehow, he envied the man, even as he was pitied in turn, for wasting his life. When he freed himself, he vowed never to spend another moment wondering what if.

* * *

Not three years later, Fury's special boy band was gathered to deal with an alien invasion, led by a man who claimed to be a god, dressed to overcompensate for some shortcoming or other.

 

Tony walked toward the conference room aboard the helicarrier, listening to the conversation filtering down the hall. His steps slowed due to a sudden pressure building in between his eyes. He rubbed at his temples, the besuited man beside him not quite suppressing the twitch to ask after his comfort. Tony shook him off with a distracted headshake, even though no words were spoken. They continued forward into the conference room.

One person, a man, with a tenor voice, mentioned Iridium, wondered what it was for.

"It's a stabilizing agent," he called, half a step inside the room, the pressure now blinding. He turned to Phil to say, "Just let me know, pick a weekend, I'll fly you out, keep the love alive."

Phil continued to ignore his words, but had to keep watching Stark’s face, his micro expressions. Something had begun to trouble the man who’d been fine not a moment ago. Many wouldn’t be able to spot the signs, but Phil was ably trained in accurately assessing someone’s well being based on their facial tics. He separated from Tony, indicating a seat near Natasha. 

"Which means, he'll be able to stabilize the portal, and it won't collapse on itself like it did at your SHIELD facility." Tony strode by Thor, slapping a bare bicep, "No hard feelings Point Break, you have a mean swing." Thor snorted, not getting the surfer reference at all, but understood that the newcomer was offhandedly apologizing for the fight earlier.

"Also means the portal can be kept open as long and wide as Loki wants," Tony concluded, blinking rapidly, even in the dim light. The pain in his head had increased dramatically, and his vision was definitely graying out, but he kept moving forward, doing his best to mask every nuanced twitch and grimace. He got to where Fury would stand, and made some weak, off hand cracks about raising sails, and then turned to ask Maria Hill how Fury did his job with the surrounding screens. The question gave him the chance to cover one eye to see how badly his vision was screwed up.

Maria watched him walk by, barely refraining from rolling her eyes at his nonsense. She kept wondering why Fury kept him on as a consultant, Stark was more trouble than he was worth, she was sure.

 

Across the conference room, practically leaning against a bulkhead and hopefully unobserved, Bruce clutched at his head, a splitting headache and graying vision overtaking him just as soon as the newcomer had started speaking. It was an unusual reaction, to say the least, and what was even more confusing, was the lack of an external component, which would have the Other Guy screaming about it. But there was nothing. He was oddly silent. That, more than anything, freaked Bruce out. His constant companion for the last three and a half years, the Other Guy was never silent.

He squeezed his eyes shut, attempting to bring his rapidly increased heartbeat back under control before he lost it and destroyed the Helicarrier right then and there. This might not have been a good idea, joining this ersatz group of purported superheroes. But he was here, best to make due. He alternated rubbing at his temples, and pinching the bridge of his nose, with the pinching of the webbing between thumb and forefinger of one of his hands while he waited for the talk to get back around to where he might have something to contribute.

Natasha watched Bruce closely, checking for signs of an impending appearance of the Hulk, just as Tony turned back to group at the table. She saw no creeping green on his skin, nor his eyes changing colors, so had to assume he still had a lid on it. He never lost control in India, so Natasha cautiously maintained her silence.

The rest of the group was watching Tony, who, natural as breathing, drew everyone to him as though he were living flame.

"The rest of the raw materials, your missing agents can get pretty easily. The only major component he still needs is a power source of high-energy density,” he turned in place, fiddling with Fury's station and one hand palmed the tiny, sticky bug that will crack the system firewall. “Something to,” he snapped his fingers, then clapped his hands together in a dismissive gesture, “kick start the cube.”

Maria, with as much sarcasm as she could muster, muttered, "When did you become an expert on thermonuclear astrophysics?" Her glare could normally melt paint, but Steve privately thought Stark's suit might catch fire.

“Last night.” came the flippant answer. Her glare tightened. Thing of it, he was right, and she knew it. “The packet, Selvig's notes, the extraction theory papers? Am I the only one who did the reading?” Tony held his arms out in supplication, looking for some kind of answer. The only one who could answer him, was busy focusing on his own private hell in that moment. Bruce brought to mind a breathing exercise that had worked in the past for pain control: a series of shallow, quick breaths, followed by a count of five core deep breaths that he dragged up from his diaphragm. 

Steve tried to interject himself before Maria drew on Tony, “Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?”

From behind the star spangled man, “He'd have to heat the cube to 120-Million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier.” Bruce has managed to pull himself together, a little at a time.

Tony added, “Unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilize,” he started across the room towards the table, “the quantum tunneling effect.”

“Well, if he can do that, he could achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on the planet,” Bruce was a shade flippant himself, as this bright figure walked towards him out of the normal gloom of his life.

“Finally,” Tony refrained from sighing, “Someone who speaks English!”

“Is that what just happened?” Steve asked, glad to be sitting. Every piece of that gobbly-gook just went straight over his head.

The two scientists reach forward, expected to shake hands. As their palms and fingers touch, they both are forced to close their eyes against a new wave of intense pain. The easy clasp quickly becomes a hard cling that they must now hide. There was no time to deal with this turn of personal events.

Bruce was still worried about the odd silence in his head, but upon opening his eyes, a whole new world was before him. The setting was the same as just five seconds ago, but now was completely, brilliantly awash in dazzling color. He needed time to sort this out. Unfortunately, there was none to be had.

Tony appeared to shake it off faster than his counterpart, “It's good to meet you Dr. Banner. Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage-monster.” He blinked a few times, clearing some tears that had welled up unbidden. The gorgeous brown of Banner's eyes were a spot he thought he could drown in, but not now. Now they had to focus on Fury's latest pet project.

Natasha watched from the far side of the conference table as the two scientists finally met. She had cataloged the reactions they showed from whatever caused them pain, quirking a single eyebrow at Phil Coulson to ask without disrupting Stark. Phil could only shake his head. It was nothing SHIELD had approved or knew about. Natasha turned her attention to Captain Rogers and Thor, noticing that they had no idea what was going on with the two geniuses.

“Thanks,” Bruce reluctantly replied. They had to let go of each others hands, but what if the color faded?

Director Nick Fury finally joined the team, speaking as he walked up to the table, “Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube, I was hoping you might join him.” His one eye squinted across the glass and metal table to focus on the pair of scientists, who were as pale as ghosts, and only inches apart. Fury made a mental note to ask Phil what was going on there.

“You might start with that stick of his,” Steve added. “It may be magical, but it seems to work an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon.”

“I don't know about that,” Fury deflected, “But it is powered by the cube. And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys.” He was practically snarling the last few words.

Thor broke in from beside Fury, “Monkeys? I do not understand.”

“I do!” Steve exclaimed, pointing at Thor, so very happy to get something in the recent round table, “I understood that reference.” 

Tony rolled his eyes, before turning to Bruce, “Shall we play, doctor?”

“This way, sir,” Bruce extends a hand towards the correct hall, and they head off to the lab, leaving the others behind.

They made their way down the corridor, with Bruce checking to see where there was an empty room or closet to duck into. The two of them had to put this issue to bed, and soon, before it interfered with their tasks in searching out the missing agents and stopping Loki's plot.

“Here,” Bruce said, finding exactly what he wanted, a room with no windows looking in, and a lockable door. Fortunately the door was open, allowing him to get them inside easily. He grabbed Tony and nearly tossed him within, shutting the door behind him.

Tony squawked, but didn't struggle when Bruce jerked on his arm, hauling him into an empty, dark room.

Lights came up automatically, and Tony heard the lock click in the door, sealing them inside. He thought that was a good thing, it would let them get to the bottom of this, whatever it was, and then move on with clear heads.

“So, do you have a clue what happened in there?” Bruce got straight to the point, finding a desk and leaning against it, crossing his arms over his chest.

“No doubt something Fury cooked up,” Tony attempted to shift the blame. Though he was thinking about the legends again, his mind whirling at the possibilities. He reached for his phone.

“Calling a lifeline?”

“Hah, sort of. JARVIS, need you bud.” Tony tapped twice on the face of the phone, waking it up.

“Yes sir, how can I assist you?” came a startlingly clear, slightly accented voice from the speaker. To Bruce, it didn't sound mechanical or tinny at all.

“Give me the files on bonds, would you?” Tony requested, placing the phone on the desk between them. “Then lock down the room.”

Bruce looked at Tony, privately marveling at the richness of the colors the other man was wearing. In the privacy of this small room, with just the two of them, it was much easier to focus on one thing. Tony's tie was especially rich with vibrancy, the pinks, and greens glinting in the low light of the office overheads.

The gentle blue glow emanating from Tony's phone caught Bruce's attention next. “Damn, that's an incredible shade of blue,” he whispered, struck by the simplicity of the wireframe window that revealed a list of file documents that Tony was scrolling through.

“As J told me, when we put this together,” Tony remained flippant, but he agreed. Twigging one file in particular, he opened it and had it jump into a large view in front of them so they could share the view.  
“Here, this is what I was looking for, rates on people with clinical colorblindness, who then, after finding their significant other, are suddenly cured.” He indicated the file, and Bruce pulled his glasses from the breast pocket of the eggplant purple shirt. The movement shifted the opened buttons a little, revealing tantalizing glimpses of furry chest that set Tony's mouth to watering a little. It had been some time since he'd enjoyed a relationship with a male partner, and he definitely wasn't sure where Dr. Banner stood on the matter.

Bruce sped through the reading, finding the numbers to be sufficiently high to give him hope that the old myths were indeed true. However, it was still depressing that his parents might have been soulmates. It just proved that even 'meant to be' didn't make for perfect relationships.

“What do you think this means for us?” Bruce wanted to get that question out in the open.

“I think we should see where it takes us,” Tony said, closing the file with a swipe of his left hand, before leaning inside Bruce's personal space. He moved slow enough so that Bruce could stop him, or move away.

Bruce watched as Tony got closer, and tipped his head to one side, inviting him in for what they both wanted at that point.

Lips met, a gentle brush that promised heat enough to set fires. The two men sighed, muscles relaxing as they leaned on one another, seeking refuge. They touched foreheads once they'd stopped kissing, and shared a few breaths before pulling apart.

“How do we act out there?” Bruce worried, pulling his glasses back off and cleaning the sparkling lenses on his shirt tail.

“Who cares what they think?” Tony asked him, searching for his eyes, and conveying the depths of his seriousness. “I have never cared one way or the other.”

“Yes you have,” Bruce said quietly, folding the glasses back into his pocket. “But if you don't care if SHIELD knows, if the team knows. That's fine. We'll have each others backs if SHIELD gets nosy.”

“Damn straight we will.” Tony pecked him on the nose, which made Bruce scrunch his face in fake offense. Tony laughed, and pecked him on the nose again. Bruce smiled.

“You had, Jarvis, was it? Lock the room down?” Bruce asked as they readied themselves to leave the room behind and get down to the lab.

“Yes, JARVIS, my AI. I'll get a more formal introduction later,” Tony said, heading out the door, “I have a safe cracker program working, and J piggy-backed the signal, to control and wipe whatever security feed I needed him to. Hell, he can do just about anything, including control the armor.”

Tony continued to wax lyrical about the AI he'd built fresh from college, keeping Bruce's attention the entire way to the lab, where they reluctantly bent to the task at hand.

They managed sly touching while working on tracking down the cube via it's gamma signature, until everything went to hell because of the influence of Loki's staff. 

When the Hulk fell from the Helicarrier, Tony worried for all of a few seconds before his attention was grabbed by the turbine he was attempting to fix. He maintained a level of hope though, as the colors he continued to experience remained steady, and the files that JARVIS read to him seemed to indicate that anything life threatening could put that in danger.

It was with great relief when Rogers informed him that Bruce had indeed shown up to give the team a hand, and Tony would have gone for a loop of celebration, if he hadn't had a Chitauri whale beast on his tail.

“I'm bringing the party to you,” Tony said, flying back towards the team.


End file.
